Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani won their opening doubles match at Indian Wells on Monday, 9 November, while Guo Hanyu and Kristina Mladenovic survived a far narrower route to victory in the same WTA Finals group. The results were also confirmed by Tennis World Italia.

Two different routes to an opening win

The WTA's official report records a 6–3, 7–6(5) victory for Dabrowski and Stefani over Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai. The top seeds were broken back when serving for the match, but secured the second-set tiebreak 7–5.

Guo and Mladenovic beat Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko 3–6, 6–1, [12–10]. As TennisActu reported, the deciding match tiebreak began with six consecutive points for their opponents, whose advantage later reached 8–2. Guo and Mladenovic erased three match points from 9–6 and another at 10–9, then took the final three points. Their recovery turned a potentially damaging opening defeat into a winning start.

A Wimbledon rematch comes next

The two winning teams meet on Wednesday, 11 November. That gives the next group match a clear reference point: Guo and Mladenovic defeated Dabrowski and Stefani 6–3, 7–5 in the Wimbledon final in July, claiming their first major trophy as a partnership.

Their opponents arrive with a broader collection of 2026 titles. The WTA's pre-tournament team guide lists six for Dabrowski and Stefani, including Dubai, Beijing and Wuhan. Both players have previous Finals experience, although this is their first appearance together: Dabrowski won with Erin Routliffe in 2024, while Stefani was runner-up with Timea Babos in 2025. Guo is making her tournament debut; Mladenovic previously lifted the doubles trophy in 2018 and 2019.

Archive photograph: Stefani and Dabrowski at Wimbledon, 12 July 2026, not at Indian Wells. Photo: Daniel Cooper via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Image resized, without cropping or distortion.

Source: www.wtatennis.com